Write with TLC

Is it ageism? Is it sexism? Is it both? Who gets to decide? With the release of Madonna's latest album, Madame X , there have been a lot of people writing about her in ageist, sexist ways while claiming it's neither ageist nor sexist. If "She's too old to be making pop music. Grandma needs to shut up." isn't sexist and ageist, then what is? She really is a person people love to hate... What exactly is the problem? Is it what she said when she said " I think the most controversial thing I have ever done is to stick around."? I've been thinking about this because like Madonna I'm getting older; we all are. I've blogged about Madonna and her music enough for it to be fairly obvious I'm a long time fan.. I've often thought her best work was the work she didn't release as singles. It's those more thoughtful, reflective songs buried under the flash. I've often lamented some of her choices for singles because I thoug...

I marched in the Portland Pride Parade in the HP, Inc. section on June 18, 2019 along with my husband, who is an HP, Inc. employee. The experience made me think and feel and think some more.  As I walked through the streets lined with people out to show their support for the LGBTQIA community, I listened to people shouting supportive words, saw people with shirts and signs offering "Mom hugs" and "Dad hugs", and saw people embracing their identities without hesitation. It was a beautiful to see so much support and love being expressed. After a bit it occurred to me that several of the people in the crowd likely assumed I am a member of the LBGTQIA community and I smiled. Let them think what they want. The last time I cared what people thought about my sexual identity I was in high school. By the time I was in college, I stopped caring. Sometimes I even embraced it when some idiot guy who couldn't imagine any girl rejecting him unless she was a lesbian lobb...

What does it mean to eat healthy? Let's be clear, food can be pleasurable and can even taste good, but the primary focus of food is health. Food provides energy and nutrition. Food boosts or depletes the immune system. Food supports our health or destroys it. Food is a necessity whether we like it or not. We are bombarded with opinions and research, some legitimate and some biased. We are told by a million different sources that the same thing is healthy and unhealthy. We are lead to believe we MUST eat this thing or that thing. All of this has created a food industry more interested in collecting our money than in providing nutritional value.  Food-like substances are sold as food far too often. Far too many people buy them thinking they are getting what they need and then wondering why their health is so poor.  Sometimes doctors prescribe these food-like substances rather than push their patients to put forth a tiny bit more effort to get the nutrition they need f...

The flip side of fear of success is fear of failure. Both end up in paralysis, have some of the same triggers, and share some of the same roots. It can be hard to discern which is which. I've struggled with both, and at times still do. Fear of failure for me was a need to be perfect. I equated perfection with love. I could only be loved if I was perfect. I could only be perfect if I was successful at everything. Failure wasn't an option. An "A" was never good enough in school. Everything I did could be better.  Early in my life I developed a fear of failure that at times has stifled my creativity, my progress, and even lead to complete inaction. In some ways my fear of failure contributed to my later fear of success. I started life confident that I could and would do whatever I wanted, but as I began to encounter those little digs that meant I could never be perfect and the harder I tried to be perfect, the more my imperfections haunted me. When I was assaul...